Month: May 2013

I’m still on a marathon to finish all 45 episodes of this drama and so far so good. Love the chemistry between Zhao Li Ying and Chen Xiao. I thought Zhao Li Ying looked to cute to play the titular role of a female prime minister but she has proved me wrong. Although she still looks cute to me. She can still exude elegance and posture as a lady of high rank and it’s clear why Chen Xiao’s character fell for her. Lu Zhen is supposedly smart and innocent as most historical fiction heroines are.

This is a great movie about how a group of girls come together and discover their love for jazz. I myself play classical music and never really liked or understood jazz so this movie was really enlightening. It stars Ueno Juri and Yuta Hiraoka, the former which is well-known as Nodame in Nodame Cantabile. The girls actually practiced prior filming so they really play their own music.

I started watching Japanese dramas about 3 to 4 years back. Before that, it was just Korean and Taiwanese dramas. Nowadays, I watch less Korean and more Japanese drama. Initially, the 10 episode format(more or less around there) really irritated me. I was used to 16-20 episode format and I figured that Japanese dramas were too short. Eventually I took a leap and started watching my first drama, Tokyo Dogs. I liked it because it had ‘ikemens’, Oguri Shun and Mizushima Hiro. I wouldn’t recommend it for people who are fresh to Jdoramas but if you are an Oguri Shun or Mizushima Hiro fan, by all means, watch it. Now, I’m totally comfortable with the less episodes in Jdoramas because I can finish them in one go faster, haha! But I like it because having less episodes means that things move faster, every episode wouldn’t be a bore and they focus on the main issues such as the lead couple or their occupation only. I find Korean dramas especially those with a super huge family quite tiring because they have too much side stories whereas I want to see more progress on the main story.Continue reading →

I haven’t been watching anime much of these days but my friend recommended Shingeki no Kyojin or Attack onTitans. The reason why I gave up on anime was because most anime produced of lately are much on the sci-fi end and so clean and polished. The animation IS getting better but it lost some old school touch. So, I turned to dramas. But back to Shingeki no Kyojin, the latest buzz in animeland, so I hear.

Attack on the Titan is set in a world where the remains of the human population live inside cities surrounded by enormous walls due to the sudden appearance of the Titans, gigantic humanoid creatures who devour humans seemingly without reason. The story centers around the life of Eren Jaeger and his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman, whose lives are changed forever after the appearance of a colossal Titan brings about the destruction of their home and the death of their mother.

It’s one of the first few Jdoramas I watched and I actually watched all the whole premise. Chronology of the airing of the series:

Liar Game (Fuji TV, 2007)

Liar Game 2 (Fuji TV, 2009)

Liar Game Episode Zero (2010)

Liar Game X (2010)

Liar Game The Final Stage (2010)

Liar Game Reborn (2012)

Alice in Liar Game (2012)

Liar Game Reborn SP: Fukunaga vs Yokoya (2012)

This series is also adapted from the manga. A brief summary-

Kanzaki Nao is an honest college student who receives a hundred million yen one day, along with a card saying she has been chosen to take part in the “Liar Game”. The aim of the game is to trick the other players out of their hundred million dollars. At the end, the winner gets the hundred million and the loser is a hundred million yen in debt. The next day, she receives notification that her opponent is her former teacher, Fujisawa Kazuo. She goes to him, seeking help, but ends up getting tricked into handing her money over. Desperate, she approaches the police for help, but they are unable to do anything. However, she is told of a mastermind swindler, Akiyama Shinichi, who is to be released from jail the next day. Desperate, she goes to him for help.

Another high school drama full of comedy and some romance, okay it’s rom-com. If you love manga and anime, this is literally anime but in real-life form. A brief summary on the drama-

Based on a manga with the same name created by Aida Natsumi, ‘Switch Girl!!’ revolves around a high school student named Nika (Nishiuchi) who appears to be a stylish and fashionable girl at school, but that’s really a fake persona that she uses when she’s in public. At home, she “switches off” the facade and her returns to her true slovenly nature. Kiriyama Renn plays the good-looking transfer student Arata, who is Nika’s love interest in the story

This drama just spells SUMMER to me. Everything in this drama is so breezy and warm, perfect for summer watch. The cinematography here brings out a lot of warm colours and it makes you wanna have a porch you can laze on too. The cast is fresh and Johnny brings out another idol, Chinen Yuri to star in this drama. He’s cute and all but kinda short if you put him side by side with Jesse Lewis. Brief plot-

3 months ago, Miku(Aoi Morikawa) became sick and couldn’t do anything, but sit on the stairs of a playground at her school. At that time, a male student took her to the school infirmary. Miku fell in love with the boy, even though she never saw his face. The only thing Miku can recall of the boy is the touch of his hand. Miku believes that boy is part of her fate.

Aaaannndd it’s back! 😀 The awesome Professor Yukawa (Fukuyama Masaharu) is getting another season, 6 years after the first season back in 2007. Although this time, he’s paired up with yet another rookie detective, Kishitani Misa(Yoshitaka Yuriko). I had expectations for this season since the first one was cool and really had some great cases. Although Shibasaki Kou made her leave in this season, I expected Yoshitaka Yoriko to pull off a great character. A brief summary about the series –

Professor Yukawa is a genius physicist and university associate professor, who occasionally steps in to solve difficult mysteries which often involve physic application. Kishitani Misa is introduced as the successor to Utsumi Kaoru as the new detective in town. Kishitani is a prideful girl who is very stubborn and quite rude at times. And poor Kuribayashi (Professor Yukawa’s eternal assistant who’s older than him but stuck at the same position for decades), who gets insulted every episode. So Kishitani is supposed to bring the fireworks on and make it livelier somehow. there will be lots of bickering for sure.

Fukuyama Masaharu is an eccentric physics professor who puts his genius to good use in dealings with crime cases with rookie detective played by Shibasaki Kou. The cases are quite interesting and they really just apply the most fundamental physics knowledge so it’s easy to understand but solving them requires more expertise. Continue reading →

I have Jiu Lu Fei Xiang's and Lin Jiacheng's express consents to translate Sansheng, Wangchuan Wu Shang and Mei Gongqing for non-commercial purposes. It is illegal to take my translations outside hamster428 without prior consent or to receive any monetary gains from them.